When looking at this photograph circulating in the main news the title of the in/famous 1936 novel of the Louis-Ferdinand Céline came to mind – Mort à Crédit – because when one has to give credit these two people with a word that strongly associated with them then these two words come up… they hang as invisible text balloons over their heads as if they were spoken in this tête à tête of two people who got to their actual power position in a similar way. One by being born into a royal family, the other by marrying a future king. The associated novel content of Céline (a master novelist and champion anti-semite at the same time) is summarised in a Wikipedia article on it:

“… sordid stories of families whose destiny is governed by their own stupidity, malice, lust and greed …”

I think it fits the related personal and world events of these two very well, I explain why below.

Queen Maxima is also apointed as United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), her specialism being ‘micro-credits’. The mangament of her personal economics is not much ‘in-line’ with this task as she has recently be exposed in her home land Argentina for tax evasion over property that she had aquired in Patagonia. Her family history may explain how she can “turn a blind eye” on the practices of the man who sits opposite her, the Saudi omnipotent cron-prince who has implicated himself in the silencing of Saudi dissidents, which in one well exposed case led to the killing and dismemberment of well know Saudi dissent Jamal Kashoggi. Worse in the sense of the number of fatalities has been the involvement of crown-prince Mohammad bin Salman – as minister of Defence – in the raging war in Yemen, whereby Saudi Arabia as a proxy for the United States fighting (indirectly) the growing influence of Iran in Yemen (to remind those who blame Trump for all badness of the USA, this deal was made under Obama). Since the year 2016 Saudi Arabia’s airforce (supported by the British and the Americans) have strafed what are supposed to be strongholds of enemies of the Saudi’s.. areal bombardments which have been exposed by many international observers and local human rights organisations of causing more collateral victims than succesful hits on so called military targets.

Queeen Maxima’s father, Jorge Zorreguieta, comes from a rich Argentinian agriculture trading family and he has served also as a deputy minister during the Argentina Junta, taking on also other resposibilities involving him as weel in what is called by the euphemism of ‘interior security’. During that tenure several memebers of the staff for who Jorge Zorreguieta was responsible “disappeared”… as he managed to get his ass out of this mess before the donwfall of the junta, he has managed to evade prosecution during his life-time.
Of course the daughter of such a white collar criminal is not supposed to carry responsibilities for the bad history of her father, but it is striking how Maxima repeats the irresponsibility and ignorance of her own father . Like him she has a strong drive to public fame and an underdeveloped sense of morality and responsibility.

Economics and credits come in yet in another way in the relation between the two royal houses of the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia, with the log standing financial interests of the Dutch’House of Orange’ and world oil companies. Royal Shell is the most prominent expression of that. The grandmother of King Willem Alexander bought early on many shares in this successful company and only a few years ago in 2015 King Willem Alexander flew in to Saudi Arabia to pay his respects to the deceased Saudi King Abdullah, an act that was at that time criticised by some because of the abhorent state of human rights in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

This citation I took from the news service Al Jazeera (yes I know all big players on the international media market are somehow participating also in the creation of the misery they expose):

“Queen Maxima of the Netherlands is facing a barrage of criticism over a meeting she had with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during the G20 summit in Japan. // Agnes Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, who has been investigating the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, accused Maxima of complicity by not discussing the case with the crown prince.“If you do not speak and do not demand justice, it suggests that you have no concerns,” Callamard told Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad on Saturday.” (…)“Silence, turning a blind eye, a ‘business as usual approach’ towards the increasingly aggressive tactics of too many autocrats; those are not the characteristics of leadership that we should expect.”

NB mostly pictures taken of Maxima tend to be charming and/or embellishing, this one NOT… one can not escape second thoughts… is she stupified?… does she experience a moment of memory loss?… also one can see she is taken notes in some kind of cahier, or it her brieving notes?… all very non-monarch style.. monarchs do not make notes, they have their retinue to take care of such commoners things…

Princes Christina, younger sister of the former queen of the Netherlands Beatrix, is known for keeping a low profile, this apart from hitting the news when she has invented yet another artifice to enlarge her financial estate using creative ways to avoid paying taxes on it to the Dutch state. She is not only a creative woman in the realm of finances, but also in art. Latest spectacular event being the auction of a splendid art work from her private collection, a drawing by the famed painter from Antwerp, Rubens. At first the work was valued below one million dolar, but by leaking the pending sale of this work at Sotheby’s New York to the Dutch press, which caused a scandal in certain museum director’s circles – who would have wanted to buy the work for an under the table price – such apublic publicity fuss was created that the estimated value of the work more than tripled even before the auction took place. In the end the price at auction was tenfold the initial estimate, 8,2 million dollars, but… this is not the end of the princess and her artistry in economics. She had not failed to notice the sensation of the shredded work during auction by the British artist Banksy at Sotheby’s London, fall last year, how his shredded artwork of ‘the girl with the balloon’ had been recreated at auction. Sotheby’s London did put the work on show in its half shredded state presented in a construction specially developed for it.

Princess Christina had been thinking a lot about this historical event and as she has a highly developed sense for art and money she decided to do the same. As said she tends to keep a low profile, so shredding of the work was not during the auction, but straight after… like her great example Banksy who did not destroy an artwork, but created a new one, baptised “Love is in the bin, 2018”. Christina had her work shredded as well by Sotheby’s New York – be it as a private event – and named it accordingly. The price estimates of this new work made by a Dutch princess are not yet known, certain is that there is a large clientele for such a royal work in the circles of art loving oil sheiks and their museums of modern art.

If she had been buying her own Rubens drawing with her own money to turn it into a work of art by herself, we do not know, still this private photograph has been leaked to me and I am proud to offer it to the world to honour the creative ingenuity of this priceless princess.

Prince Friso of the Dutch royal family has been now for 6 months in what is called PERSISTENT VEGETATIVE STATE (PVS). (2)

The transfer to a UK hospital may pose legal problems, as procedures for ‘ending life’ in cases where there is no more chance of recovery is problematic in the UK – as we know of a recent case of a man that sought help for ending his life that had no future – and the formal refusal of a British court to allow ‘euthanasia’ in his case.

The Netherlands does have a more liberal law in this sense.

There are hardly any examples of people in PVS that regain consciousness, and even less that have any chance to function again as a human. Younger people stand statistically a bit more chance than middle age people like Prince Friso. In most cases ‘economics’ (the extreme high costs of keeping someone in such a permanent vegetative state) form the decisive argument for halting such treatment in a specialised medical ward.

In the case of the Royal House of the Netherlands the financial means are not a problem, but this affluence creates an ethical problem.

Recently a Dutch governmental medical advice commission did propose to scrap certain extreme expensive medications for a small group of special patients. This to cope with the ‘economic crisis’. This caused an uproar as life prolonging medication, even in cases of prolongation of life of weeks or months, should not be denied. Many spoke out in this way. From specialised medical staff to patient organisations and laymen. (2)

Now how does the Dutch Prince who is kept in permanent coma in a British private hospital, fits in this discussion?

Royals are human beings like any other, are they not? They do die after all like anybody else. Those who play their role in keeping monarchies alive, need to reflect also on the limits of prolonging life and the morals and ethics needed, there where we all have to face the sometimes paradoxical consequences of the ingenuity of modern medicine. (3)

We have now witnessed a state of exemption since the avalanche accident in Austria this winter of half a year. However sad it is, also royals should come to a decision, that may be harder to take because of their wealth.

The bereavement process of the family must have been frustrated and one wonders why the wife of Prince Friso has not had the courage to, or has been kept from, ending this ‘high tech’ medical ordeal.

Interview and photographs of Prince Friso and his wife Mabel and they way they enjoy London as the place were they work and live in the M magazine of Dutch daily NRC/Handelsblad May 2006. I did fade the Prince into an image of the brain surgery specialised Wellington Hospital where he is kept in coma now.

One hopes that Dutch Queen Beatrix who is used to control family affairs with an iron hand, will come to see that her hand is not the hand of God when she orders to pull the plugs out. It is time – also for a prince – to die.

(2) “Unlike brain death, persistent vegetative state (PVS) is not recognized by statute as death in any legal system. In the US and UK, courts have required petitions before termination of life support that demonstrate that any recovery of cognitive functions above a vegetative state is assessed as impossible by authoritative medical opinion.

This legal grey area has led to vocal advocates that those in PVS should be allowed to die. Others are equally determined that, if recovery is at all possible, care should continue. The existence of a small number of diagnosed PVS cases that have eventually resulted in improvement makes defining recovery as “impossible” particularly difficult in a legal sense.[4] This legal and ethical issue raises questions about autonomy, quality of life, appropriate use of resources, the wishes of family members, and professional responsibilities.” [Wikipedia on PVS]

(3) Radio Netherlands Worldwide; 31/7/2012: “An emotional debate is underway in the Netherlands over the value of a human life. On Sunday, a Dutch health insurance body announced that it was recommending that certain expensive drugs no longer be covered.”

(4) Radio Netherlands Worldwide 24/8/2012: An influential Dutch ethicist (Heleen Dupuis, former professor in medical ethics at the University of Leiden) has said that if Queen Beatrix’s son, Prince Johan Friso, had been hospitalised in the Netherlands after his ski accident, doctors would have already stopped his treatment.